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View from the south stand: Sale 27 Leicester 20


By Cap'n Major Bloodnok
March 30 2016

I thought Wasps might end the unbeaten home run. I feared that Exeter might end it. I expected Saracens to. Quins were the last team to win at the AJ Bell. Still the record held. Next up to take a tilt at it: Leicester.


It was the best of days; it was the worst of days. It was, all told, something of a Vivaldi day[1]. When I set off from home, I felt overdressed for the weather. By half time, I was feeling underdressed, and by the time I got home, I was looking forward to something hot to drink.

We’re reasonably fortunate in the back of the South stand, in that the weather doesn’t really reach us (apart from the wind, that is). When the rain starts to fall, we look over to the prawn sarnie brigade in the West stand with its high and basically ineffectual roof and we smile quietly to ourselves. We had good cause in this match to look gratefully at our effective roof…

But I’m getting ahead of the story. Easter Sunday, nice day (initially…), Leicester Tigers: should have been a sell-out. That it wasn’t is very disappointing for a game that deserved so much more. Maybe the club are right to be happy that we’re not on the telly that often – did the fact that it was being shown live keep people at home who might otherwise have added to the atmosphere? I don’t know why the crowds are so low, but the folks who aren’t coming are missing some cracking rugby.


The first half started in bright sunshine, with Sale playing toward the South stand, into a strong wind. Two minutes in and ref Foley awarded Sale a penalty that Danny—surely—couldn’t miss.

He didn’t. 3-0.

Leicester then did what Leicester do so well: they turned up a bit of heat and put pressure on the Sale line. Some sterling work by the defence kept them at bay for a few minutes, before some less than sterling work by Tommy Taylor had him going off for a 10 minute rest. Cockerill said afterwards that he thought they should have had a penalty try. To be honest, having watched the replay, I think he had a point.

Leicester went for a 5-metre line out from the penalty and, after a short build-up, the ball went to Goneva wide out on the right and the inevitable…

Didn’t happen. Inexplicably, Goneva—rather than flop down over the line—chose to cut inside in the in-goal area, where he met up with the diminutive, but very solid, form of NevNevNev, who managed to dislodge the ball from Goneva’s grasp.

Cam Neild moved to hooker and Nev3 packed down at 6 for the scrum, which fell apart first go, but held well enough the second time, apart from a knock-on, which gave the scrum back to Tigers.

Briggsy then made a short but educational appearance. The ref carefully pointed out with Cam having already taken over as hooker, if Briggsy came on, that would be a permanent change. So off he went, to much cheering and cries of “well played, Briggsy”.

The seven-man scrum held well against the Tigers’ eight-man pack, but shortly after Foley gave Leicester a penalty, which Burns kicked for 3-3.

Mind you, that was five minutes off the sin-bin – Sale then took control of the ball and played a good game of “run down the clock”, including a couple of leisurely line outs and some good phase play. So well did they do it that Taylor had been off for about 13 minutes when Leicester were given a penalty in their own 22. Burns took it too quickly for Taylor to come back on, so Sale had to continue with 14 men. The kick missed touch and that man Nev3 caught it and ran it back strongly. Play went from side to side until Cipriani slipped between two defenders, ran deep into the Leicester 22 and passed out to Nev3 who was pulled up a couple of metres short. Two phases later Cameron Neild came through on a great angle, received the ball from Cips and thumped down over the line. Cips kicked the conversion: 10-3.

Owen Williams replaced Burns as kicker, as Burns went off with a back injury picked up in the Goneva kerfuffle. Williams’s first job was to kick a penalty to make the score 10-6.

Sale have a habit this season of producing a “try of the month” contender with amazing regularity. The (first) one from this match came with about 10 minutes of the half remaining.

Leicester were pressing, when a some sloppy rucking and a bit of quick thinking by Neild gave Sale the turnover. Stringer passed to Cipriani, who juggled it a bit and then launched a huge kick from about the 5 metre line, near the posts. Given the wind, this was a monster kick and, as it approached the right-hand touchline, it started to curve back infield, landing about an inch inside the touchline near the halfway line. Bell failed to gather, Addison kicked on, gathered the ball, offloaded to James who passed to a completely unmarked NevNevNev who calmly grounded the ball between the posts. With the conversion, Sale now led 17-6.

Incidentally, the fact that Will’s foot was in touch when he kicked on is irrelevant—the laws say that a ball that’s infield is only out if a player in touch holds it. That is, if he kicks it or taps it, then it’s not out as long as it hasn’t crossed the plane of touch. So that potential line of grievance for Tigers fans wasn’t. It also clearly shows that the commentators are not well-versed in the laws, given how insistent they were that the try shouldn’t have stood, and that world rugby would be debating this for some time (hint: no, it won’t, as the law is quite clear).

With a couple of minutes to go, and the rain sheeting down, Will Addison—brave? stupid?—launched himself head-first into Manu Tuilagi. Adders stayed down, which left a hole on the defence, and Bell duly scored near the left touchline. A great conversion kick by Williams brought the half time score to 17-13.


Sale started the second half brightly, and some good attacking play brought a penalty when next year’s new boy Laurence Pearce killed the ball and was invited to take a break from the fray. Danny put over kick number 4; 20-13.

And there it stayed for the next fifteen minutes or so, whereupon the weather turned epically Biblical. The rain was lashing, lightning flashing and thunder rumbling. Folk in the West stand were forced to shelter underneath their wallets, and a Swiss gentleman in the North stand was seen raising a platform into the sky, shouting “It’s alive! It’s alive!”

It was now that referee Foley decided that the risk was too great: we only had to lift Bryn the Beard too high at the next line out and we’re left with a pile of fricasseed Kiwi, so off they came.


The lightning moved off to take pot-shots at the Beetham tower, and play resumed after about 10 minutes, including a spirited rendition of Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life.

A couple of minutes after the restart, we were treated to one of the odder incidents in a game of odd incidents. A bit of Sale pressure was going nowhere, so Danny essayed a drop goal which went well wide, coming to rest in goal near the left-hand flag. Bell and Tait converged on the ball and appeared to indulge in a bit of “After you. No, After you.” With both of them overrunning the ball. NevNevNev, who had been following up the kick, sauntered over, picked up the ball and touched down. The replay showed that Tait had managed to get his hand on the ball on his way past, so no try. Pity; that would really have been one for “What Happened Next?”

Leicester pulled the scores level half way through the half when Goneva decided to go for simplicity and barrelled over the line, with just Haley covering and a huge bit of space on the left wing.

I mentioned earlier that Sale seem to have a propensity for producing Try of the Month tries and, ten minutes later, Cipriani produced the second of this match.

From a line out on the left near the Leicester 22, a series of rucks took play right, then left, then right again, until Stringer spotted Cips calling for the ball. A spring to the left, and he drifted round Jordan Crane; a show to the outside, a cut back inside and a dive over the despairing tackle of Matthew Tait and it was five points. A super kick from wide left made it 27-20 with about ten minutes to go.

Memories of last season’s match now started to prey on supporters’ minds as the clock ticked toward no side.

Thirty seconds to go and Sale have possession, working the ball from ruck to ruck. 7,000 hearts beating hard, 7,000 voices muttering “Don’t cough it up. Don’t cough it up.”

Ten seconds to go, and they coughed it up.

We then had to suffer about five minutes of Leicester battering at the line before—blessed relief!—a knock-on ended the game. 7,000 bums stopped squeaking, 7,000 people started breathing again. The unbeaten streak had survived another test.


Highlights for me were the all-round play of Cam Neild and NevNevNev, defensively and in attack. Cipriani seemed to have shaken off the demons of the last few weeks and was the on-field general that we all want to remember him for being. The scrum held well (of note, and a credit to both teams, was the general stability of the scrums; I think only one or two had to be reset).

Now, having seen some of next year’s signings, Danny’s decision to go back to Wasps seems even more disappointing. I would love to see what he could do players like Charnley in the back line. It’s not be though and, at the time of writing, we don’t know who his replacement will be. I just want someone with vision.

 

[1] Four seasons. Or “pizza day” if you prefer.

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